authors – Kevin Smokler

Book Promotion Series Continues: Part VIII: “Your Book Tour and How to Plan It”

Smokler on November 28, 2010

Last time we talked about how to give a great interview. That was probably the first time in our series that book promotion has sounded not just practical but glamorous, maybe even fun. Of course it’s important to describe your book in a smooth, clean sentence, or get your friends excited about the promotion process. But these are functions and not sexy ones. The sexy part of doing all this, we dream, is the unexpected interest, the strangers saying "I love your work," the out-of-the-blue calls saying "could you be at the studio tomorrow afternoon?"

The sexy part of book promotion is going on a book tour.

(Full Post, Entire series on Book Promotion).

Book Promotion Series Continues: Part III: “Getting Your House in Order.”

Smokler on August 9, 2010

My 10-part series on book promotion continues today over at the BookTour blog. Today's segment: "Getting Your Own House in Order."

Imagine that you’re in the weeks and months right before your book is published. What’s the best way to get ready for the big day? How much time will it take and what needs doing? All of these questions are part of the answer to the one that keeps authors awake at night when they have a new book on the horizon.

How ready would you like to feel?

When entertaining guests, we clean the house and stock the icebox. Before a trip, we pack a suitcase and notify the neighbors. We do this because the best antidote for fear of the unexpected is readiness. Just as you won’t be a good host if you don’t plan for your guest’s arrival, you’ll be a lousy spokesperson for your book if you don’t get ready before its due date. Put more simply…

In order to best promote your book, make sure your own house is in order.

Read the rest of the essay here.

Book Promotion Series Continues: Part II: It’s Who You Know

Smokler on August 2, 2010

My 10-part series on book promotion continues today over at the BookTour blog. Today's segment: "It's Who You Know."

Book promotion is a block party. If you’re lucky, the party is thrown by someone else (the New York Times, your well-paid publicist, Oprah) and you just show up. You don’t even have to bring potato salad. But that’s simply not the case for most writers, and everyone knows that. Which is why most publishers, publicists, booksellers and members of the media will be most impressed by the effort you put in yourself, by your willingness to bring what you have to the party, or to throw it yourself

I know perhaps you are shy and it’s no fun to ask for favors. This is the time to get over it. If you can’t ask the people closest to you to invest in your book, how do you expect complete strangers to invest their time and money in reading it?

Read the rest of the essay here.

10-Part Series on Book Promotion Begins Today: Part I: “Tell Me About Your Book.”

Smokler on July 26, 2010

I'm writing a 10-part series over at the BookTour blog. Today was Part 1: "Tell Me About Your Book"

A highlight…

If book promotion is matchmaking between your book and everyone who you want to know about it, “tell me about your book,” is the first date. And nobody wants to be on a first date with a motormouth who can’t keep their thoughts straight. If you WROTE the book and can’t say, with confidence, what it’s about, is there any point to continuing the conversation? All I’m thinking is “If this author writes as badly as they explain…”

I know you’ve worked on this book for two years and want to talk about everything in it. But it isn’t time for “everything.” You’re on a first date. You goal is to get a second date.

Read the entire essay here.

Welcome to the New BookTour:

Smokler on July 17, 2010

This is the letter I composed to the user's of BookTour.com, my day job, on the morning of our relaunch this past week…

Dear Friends,

Kevin Smokler here. I’m the CEO of BookTour. I’d like to sit down
with you for a moment and tell you where our little company has been
and where it’s now going.

Since 2008, BookTour.com has been the world’s largest online
directory of author and literary events. We’ve enabled readers to know
when their favorite authors would be appearing in their area and
authors to let readers know of about new books and tour dates. Our
TourBuilder program has helped authors find potential new speaking
venues. Our syndication relationships spread news information about an
author’s appearance to 250,000 readers a month.

It’s not enough. Not when nearly half a million books are published
in America every year and most never find their readership. Not when
authors are consistently told to take an active role in promoting their
books but not told how, and not when the tools available to do so for
authors are often prohibitively expensive, complex and generic.

It’s not enough for BookTour to help authors spread the word about
events, one tool in a complex process of building a literary career. We
need to start giving you authors a toolbox and not just a hammer.

Starting today, we do.

Welcome to the new BookTour.com, completely redesigned from the
ground up not just to look better but to give you, the author, a
full-service experience when during the promotion of your books. The
new BookTour isn’t just a single tool but now a complete set, aimed at
helping authors promote their books at a reasonable price.

Here’s what the new BookTour offers you…

A. PressFinder:
Ever wanted to know who reviews books for your local newspaper? Who
books authors for the your local radio and television programs? Wonder
no more. PressFinder is your answer.

Our PressFinder product is a database of book-related media
contacts—–over 1500 names across the major regions of the United States.
These contacts include people and companies involved in print, radio,
TV and online media. PressFinder also contains a special database
composed only of bloggers who love to read and review new books.

Authors will be able to search PressFinder 3 times for free. After
that, PressFinder will cost $5 a month or $49.95 a year for unlimited
access.

B. ServiceFinder:
It’s way too hard for authors to find, say, a good web designer in the
rush leading up to book publication day. With this in mind, we created
ServiceFinder, a directory of vendors (web designers, independent
publicists and publishing consultants/coaches) offering author-services
at reasonable prices.

We want ServiceFinder to be the easy, dependable place authors go to
find the services they need. As such, authors will be able to use
ServiceFinder for free. Vendors will be charged $19.95 per month to
list.

C. BFRE (Book Publicity for Really Everyone): That’s the new, fancy
name for BookTour’s blog. We haven’t done nearly enough with the blog
thus far, so beginning this week on Wednesday we’re launching a
ten-part series on book promotion, written by me. Also, BFRE will soon
be featuring interviews, conversations with and essays from authors and
leading experts on the subject of book promotion.

The new BookTour is in the business of book marketing, education and
support. BFRE will reflect this.

The BookTour features you know and love remain the same but thanks
to our redesign, will be easier to use. So if you have not yet created
an author page or signed up to receive our newsletters (for authors,
publicists and readers), there’s no time like the present!

As always, the team from BookTour is available to answer respond to
your questions, concerns or feedback at any time. We can’t wait to hear
what you think!

Welcome to the new BookTour: Your Book. Your Future.

Me in Publisher’s Weekly: On Virtual Book Touring

Smokler on October 7, 2009

I was recently asked to contribute to The Viral Issue of Publisher's Weekly where I had a few thoughts on virtual touring and the sharing of ancillary book data.

It all comes down to serving the dedicated book fan. Today, that fan has almost unlimited options online, yet they choose to spend their time and money on books. We should use the Web to empower that passion. So far, however, the book industry has remained tied to the idea that everything a publisher touches should be as proprietary as the words inside a book—cover art, author photos, cataloguing taxonomies and, despite our company’s efforts, tour information. Publishers place these bits of ephemera on their own Web sites or in their office databases and are sometimes unwilling to share them freely. It’s rightfully theirs, of course. But if GoodReads, Book Glutton, BookTour or whoever wishes to build a company around bibliophilia, around the act of proclaiming a love of reading and books, why not find a way to assist?